Ten months after he was brought to the Lucknow District Jail under the erstwhile Samajwadi Party government, the new Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh has ordered to shift don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari back to the Agra Central Jail.
Last June, the SP government had shifted Ansari from Agra to Lucknow. The decision was taken immediately after senior SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav announced the merger of Ansari’s Qaumi Ekta Dal (QED) into the then ruling party Samajwadi Party.
However, the merger decision collapsed following Akhilesh Yadav’s opposition. But Ansari stayed put in the Lucknow jail.
At that time, it was said that Ansari’s transfer was done at the behest of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Ansari, who contested on a BSP ticket, emerged winner from Mau assembly seat in Assembly polls.
Today’s development is significant because PM Narendra Modi during an election rally in Ansari's constituency had warned that gangsters will not be allowed to have a free run from behind bars if the BJP gets majority in the elections.
It is said that soon after the results of assembly polls were declared on March 11, the UP Prisons Department had moved a proposal on March 16 asking for Ansari's transfer back to the Agra jail.
